Have the Ethics of Book Scanning Changed?

As we’ve become more comfortable with e-books, have the ethics of book scanning changed?

By Edward Nawotka, Editor-in-Chief

Not too long ago Google inspired rage in publishers when they announced their intention to scan and digitize all the world’s libraries — largely without permission. The very thought still bothers many publishers, though it is likely that some of the ire has subsided as people have become more accustomed to digital publishing and e-books in general. Though, apparently, somewhere at Google headquarters there is a wall featuring the destroyed covers and spines of many of those books that have made their way into the Google database — and isn’t it curious that there isn’t a photo of this floating around somewhere on the web (if you have one, please send it to us)? Is there fear that it might provoke a backlash in the same way the Bush administration feared allowing journalists to photograph the coffins of soldiers who died in overseas wars?

Not too long ago, adjunct professors would surreptitiously copy chapters and essays out of books and distribute them for use in their classes. These unofficial “course packs” were often criticized as copyright infringement — but unless you were an adjunct professor of copyright law, it was hard to know if your behavior fell under “Fair Use” or was simply abuse. Now, so much of that material is readily available for free online, that it makes the very idea of a course pack a likely afterthought for many.

Not too long ago, the idea of scanning a book and turning it into a e-book for your personal use was exotic. Now, it has been commercialized. A popular practice in Japan and Russia, it is now coming to the US.

Jessamyn West, a vocal e-book and digital libraries advocate, has called the conversion of a print book into a digital one, “the transubstantiation of the printed word,” lending the practice religious overtones. Others may see it as simple copyright infringement.

Of course, that depends on your point of view.

Hiroshi Nakano, CEO of of zLibro, Inc., which operates the 1dollarscan service (discussed in today’s feature story), told The Economist earlier this year that “he and his legal advisers believe that portions of [Fair Use] doctrine (related to so-called fair use and first sale) protect the firm’s activities,” largely because they don’t make a master copy of a file and they destroy the individual copy of the book after it it scanned. Yet, the magazine noted, protection under Fair Use remains far from assured. Under Fair Use individuals have the right to copy music they own for personal use (though the jury is still out on whether this extends to ripping digital files). But that pertains only to music, not to any other media. First-sale doctrine, meanwhile, lets one sell, loan, donate or even destroy a book without permission from the copyright holder. Transforming it, however, is another matter altogether.”

Legalities aside, is it ethical? If an author refuses to allow their publisher to put out a digital edition — perhaps for artistic or personal reasons — is it nevertheless okay for a user to convert the book to a digital format for their own personal use? There may be nothing stopping them, but is it right? And, as a result of our relatively new comfort with digital books, have the ethics changed?

3 Comments

Coursepacks were quickly declared illegal and not fair use, leading to the development of the Copyright Clearance Center. Now, textbook publishers that are willing to have their books be part of coursepacks routinely register there, and receive the aggregation of micro-payments from those packs.

There may well be some similar sort of development for other areas now deemed gray.

No. Google developed innovative technology to scan the contents without harming the book. Any book that we deem too fragile will not be scanned. Once scanned, the book is returned to the library collection.”

I’ve been running a small e-book publishing company since 1999, and we have always told our customers they are welcome to put copies of the e-books they buy from us onto all of their computers, smartphones, heads-up displays, refrigerators, magic eight-balls, etc., as long as they keep them to themselves and don’t send them off to friends, enemies, strangers etc. They paid for the book; let them read it.

So if I buy a printed book, can I, you know, photocopy the pages so I can take a copy of the book to the beach without fear of damaging the original? Can I, you know, scan the pages and put them on my phone to read late at night so I don’t wake my wife up? Can I do other things like this and stay within the bounds of fair use? If not, why not? Compare and contrast.

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Publishing Perspectives is an online magazine of international book publishing news and opinion. Our global network of publishing experts and reporters provide on-the-ground info and analysis from those on the cutting edge of digital, global, and self-publishing.